As fourth-year vet students, we have a lot to learn and recall from different species. We can usually forget a few things about important diseases, but having these books by my side has been helpful in my clinical year. These books are easy to look through and have allowed me to review a lot of diseases in a short period of time.
#1 Small Animal Medical Diagnosis – This book is great! It has more than 400 lists to help you find the most likely diagnosis and provide differential diagnosis by signs, symptoms, and disorder to facilitate looking them up. It also has a list of laboratory tests and findings that give you the possible diseases if lab values are increased or decreased. Overall, it is well organized, and the small size of this book makes portable. The latest edition includes FAST ultrasound examination findings and more updated content.
#2 The Merck Veterinary Manual- This is another great book! It has a lot of information and includes both small animals and large animals. It makes it easy to look up diseases since it has been organized by the endocrine system, digestive system, circulatory system and so on. It provides relevant information such as clinical findings, common lesions, diagnosis, treatment and prevention for each disease. It discusses the specificity and sensitivity of several diagnostic tools. The reference guide includes charts that are useful to remember the normal values of rectal temperature, heart/respiratory rates, hematology, serum biochemistry, blood-gas test and more. The eleventh edition which is the newest includes a new section on public health, zoonoses, poultry, toxicology and new topics on veterinary medicine.
#3 Cote’s Clinical Advisory dogs and cats- my last recommended book but not least favorite book. It is a very helpful and completed guide of small animal diseases. It provides relevant information such as the epidemiology, breed predisposition, physical exam findings, etiology, diagnosis, and more. The section of pearls and consideration explain any prevention measure, technician tips and provides client education information. The laboratory tests section listed over 150 tests and discuss reference interval, causes of high or low levels, next diagnostic steps, artifacts and more. For last, it comes with an access code to the e-book and client consent handouts in English and Spanish.
